Stories
by Patrick O’Neil Duff, editor Today I turn 32 years old. My life consists of daily interaction with my two-year-old daughter, my four-year-old son, and fifty-some-odd college students. In other words, I live in a cesspool of unwashed hands and runny noses, surrounded by individuals who don’t know how to keep themselves healthy. For the…
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Yesterday you were a boy, today blind passion makes your blood swell. You do not mean to seek lust but joy; you have been chosen as a groom whose desire is only for his bride. But the spirit of lust pulls at you, even ordinary arms suggest nakedness. Even pale cheeks on pious paintings blush…
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by Lauralee Farrer Francis Ford Coppola said that a film gets made three times: when it’s written, again when it’s shot, and yet again when it’s edited. These are all crucial stages to storytelling in film, and each one has its own demands and creative requirements. We are in a season where all those stages…
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by Lauralee Farrer A few weeks ago, we stopped tweeting at Compline (bedtime) and started tweeting at noon, the hour of Sext. That’s because we have finished the script for the story of the recovering stranger and are heading into production this month. [Some who follow us @praythehours might be happy that we’ve moved on…
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by Lauralee Farrer In our story on “Terce,” we consider a woman (played by Liz Montgomery) facing difficult times in her marriage and with her first baby. Some of these hard times can be traced to a series of bad decisions and her insistence that she is able to accomplish anything she must without asking…
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by Lauralee Farrer Somewhere I read that “time” was the noun most often used in the English language. Who knows how (or why) such surveys are conducted, or by whom; nevertheless, that result would not surprise me. We live in time the way fish live in water, so talking about it—or making films about it—opens…
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By Lauralee Farrer There’s a popular quote from Ira Glass, host of “This American Life,” that makes much of the idea that our creative work often outstrips our good taste. I admit, even though I am not a beginner, I find it soothing: “Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told…
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—by Lauralee Farrer For those who follow us on twitter @praythehours, you know that we tweet at the Hour of prayer on which we are currently working. Our “Terce” tweets ended a week or so ago because we’ve finished shooting it and we’re entering a month’s worth of assembly cuts, scriptwriting, perfecting our shooting experience,…
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I am drawn to the things that have never been said. I am determined to release these godly feelings and not hold back what others do not dare to ask. If that’s outrageous, my God, forgive. All I am trying to say is this: My very best offerings are spontaneous, without hesitation or irritation, in…
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I worship You with primal joy, Holy Spirit, Living God. —Terce refrain The light of Terce is bright, a sharp spotlight on our work. We have found the rhythm of a focus that has snapped into place, and the last intuition we have is to stop. And yet. Benedict urged stopping at this hour precisely…
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